PTPL 098 · One Tool For Everything, or Separate, Complementary Solutions?

A plain text accounting case study, and a 3-step recipe for simplifying your processes

Should software like Obsidian, Excel, and hledger be wrestled into doing things that can often be done more easily with other apps, or analog solutions? Consider using my 3-step recipe for choosing tools that support your values and promote peaceful contentment.

Plain Text Accounting can’t to do everything (well), and that’s okay

Someone on r/plaintextaccounting is seeking a PTA solution to something that to my mind is blindingly simple, in essence at least. Yet the Reddit question remains, with one caveat-laced workaround solution offered that warns, “we don’t really support that yet.”

The issue they’re having is how to track money saved toward a specific goal over a period of time. Look, if you want to enter things like that into an accounting program, and a plain text one at that, I’m cheering you on!

I imagine that this and similar things can be done with PTA, or in Obsidian with Dataview and graphic chart plugins, but analog tools are working for me right now so I have no reason to climb either of those learning curves.

You can wrangle one tool into doing All The Things, if that’s what makes you happy, or you can seek a better or simpler solution elsewhere. Remember: the end result is more important than the tool you use to get there.

Sometimes it makes sense to keep all the pieces of a bigger puzzle in the one place, and other times it doesn’t. In the absence of a clear sign as to which path is best, follow your gut. Give your chosen solution a go for a week or a month or whatever it takes to know if it’s bringing you closer to your goals while still aligning with your core values.

An open discbound A5 notebook with two multi-columned, vertical sections on the left hand page. There’s a vertical row of boxes, with each box representing an amount of money. As that amount is saved, a box is coloured in. It’s a good visual for seeing progress toward a savings goal.

↑ The Author’s dinky analog record of tracking two different financial goals

How to work out what you need

My recipe for determining how much complexity is needed in a system:

Simplify down to the lowest level at which something can still perform its most basic function. Mix well, and allow to rise.
Taste, then add layers of complexity to this foundation only as needs and true preferences (not comfort zones) dictate
Repeat step 2, and adjust seasoning until the balance of satisfaction and peace in the process are to your taste

The ingredients needed for this approach include self-awareness (of your true needs and goals), and self-observation (does something need adding or subtracting from my current approach?).

These steps represent a principle you can observe working in other contexts:

How people with normal hearing can know if the TV is too loud when other people are in bed: take the level down to the point where you can’t hear well enough, then raise it one notch at a time, stopping at the exact point you can once again understand the dialog.
Tuning a guitar by ear: take the pitch a little too high then a little too low, then adjust back to the level at which it just sounds right
Decluttering a living space by removing everything, and bringing things back only as you’re motivated enough to go and get them (as and because you need them to move toward a goal)

This principle helped me when investigating whether or not PTA was worth the effort it would take me to learn.

Remember: the end result is more important than the tool you use to get there.

Rather than struggling on, I simplified down to the basics: Markdown tables of data, followed by further simplifying with pen and paper. The plan was to keep going with the most basic of methods until I outgrew them, using pain points to guide me to the next step.

Pen and paper have been working well to track my personal finances (and those of a family member) for three months, so I’m happy to stick with it while it’s doing what I need it to.

Allow me to leave you with a quote from Travis Howse, which has both nothing and everything to do with today’s theme of today’s post.

Election security is a great way to check whether someone really considers the holistic result of the use of technology, or whether they assume “more technology = more gooder”. Paper ballots marked by hand look archaic at first glance but solve SO MANY very hard problems. It’s amazing.

A beige page with stylised white lines sits at an angle on the left on a white background, with black text overlaying it that reads Plain text. Paper, less PRODUCTIVITY DIGEST Sign up to receive the latest content in your inbox